March 20th...This Day in History (Now with links to other events)

LBJ sends federal troops to Alabama 1965

 

On this day in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson notifies Alabama’s Governor George Wallace that he will use federal authority to call up the Alabama National Guard in order to supervise a planned civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery.

Intimidation and discrimination had earlier prevented Selma’s black population–over half the city–from registering and voting. On Sunday, March 7, 1965, a group of 600 demonstrators marched on the capital city of Montgomery to protest this disenfranchisement and the earlier killing of a black man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, by a state trooper. In brutal scenes that were later broadcast on television, state and local police attacked the marchers with billy clubs and tear gas. TV viewers far and wide were outraged by the images, and a protest march was organized just two days after “Bloody Sunday” by Martin Luther King, Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). King turned the marchers around, however, rather than carry out the march without federal judicial approval.

After an Alabama federal judge ruled on March 18 that a third march could go ahead, President Johnson and his advisers worked quickly to find a way to ensure the safety of King and his demonstrators on their way from Selma to Montgomery. The most powerful obstacle in their way was Governor Wallace, an outspoken anti-integrationist who was reluctant to spend any state funds on protecting the demonstrators. Hours after promising Johnson–in telephone calls recorded by the White House–that he would call out the Alabama National Guard to maintain order, Wallace went on television and demanded that Johnson send in federal troops instead.

Furious, Johnson told Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach to write a press release stating that because Wallace refused to use the 10,000 available guardsmen to preserve order in his state, Johnson himself was calling the guard up and giving them all necessary support. Several days later, 50,000 marchers followed King some 54 miles, under the watchful eyes of state and federal troops. Arriving safely in Montgomery on March 25, they watched King deliver his famous “How Long, Not Long” speech from the steps of the Capitol building. The clash between Johnson and Wallace–and Johnson’s decisive action–was an important turning point in the civil rights movement. Within five months, Congress had passed the Voting Rights Act, which Johnson proudly signed into law on August 6, 1965.

 (More Events on This Day in History)

• American Revolution

• 1778 King Louis XVI receives U.S. representatives

• Automotive

• 1928 Auto pioneer James Packard dies

• Civil War

• 1861 Willie and Tad Lincoln get the measles

• Cold War

• 1953 Khrushchev begins his rise to power

• Crime

• 1995 Tokyo subways are attacked with sarin gas

• Disaster

• 1345 Black Death is created, allegedly

• General Interest

• 1413 Henry V ascends upon father’s death
• 1854 Republican Party founded
• 1995 Nerve gas attack on Tokyo subway

• Hollywood

• 1948 20th annual Academy Awards celebrated

• Literary

• 1852 Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published

• Music

• 1982 Joan Jett tops the pop charts with “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”

• Old West

• 1823 Ned Buntline born

• Presidential

• 1965 LBJ pledges federal troops to Alabama civil-rights march

• Sports

• 1934 Babe Didrikson goes to the mound for Philly

• Vietnam War

• 1954 Americans alarmed about impending French defeat
• 1968 Retired Marine Commandant comments on conduct of war

• World War I

• 1915 Britain and Russia divide future spoils of war

• World War II

• 1945 British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma